BANGOR — Dirigo coach Ryan Palmer was dragging the field after a Babe Ruth practice earlier this spring when he saw a sweaty Tyler Frost, his burly cleanup hitter, emerge from Dirigo High School wearing his basketball gear.

Up to that point in the season, Palmer had agreed to play Frost at third base for the Cougars rather than the position he originally intended for him. Frost was still nursing an ankle injury suffered the previous autumn while playing football and, after discussing it with his doctor and parents, thought it would be best not to put the loose cartilage in the joint through the wear and tear of squatting behind the plate.

But with Frost looking no worse for wear after running up and down Defoe  Gymnasium in a men’s league game and the playoffs looming, Palmer thought it was time to have a talk.

“I called him the next week after the St. Dom’s game and said, ‘Mister, what’s going on? You need to be catching. If you’re playing basketball, you need to be catching,'” Palmer said.

“Okay, I’ll do it,” Frost answered.

Junior Brian Volkernick caught for the Cougars during the regular season, and did so more than admirably. But “it was a move we had to make. It made our team better and everyone was okay with it,” Palmer said.

So Frost donned the tools of ignorance for the final regular season game against Telstar and split time with Volkernick in the playoffs, including Saturday’s Class C championship game against Stearns.

Frost showed just how much better it made the Cougars as they collected their second consecutive state title and third in four years with an 8-2 win at Mansfield Stadium. He went 3-for-5, scored a run, drove in one and saved at least two more runs by blocking dirt-digging breaking balls from pitcher Chad Snowman.

“He was phenomenal,” said Snowman, who wasn’t so bad himself. “When they had runners on third, I was throwing curve balls and they were going in the dirt and he was blocking them. He’s a great catcher and I knew he would drop down and get those for me.”

“He was pitching a great game back there. I wanted to do everything I could to help him out,” said Frost, who caught Snowman in practice prior to Saturday.  “Not that he needed it.”

Snowman was happy to take all the help he could get. He relied on his defense to make the plays, as his 75-pitch complete-game pitching line will attest. He struck out five, walked one and scattered five hits.

“His curve ball was working early on and they started to chase it,” Frost said. “It didn’t really matter what I was calling, because he was hitting his spots.”

He was paying attention to more than where Frost’s mitt was, too, getting himself out of a jam in the first inning. After surrendering a one-out double to Nick Dumas, Snowman noticed on his next pitch that Dumas was dancing halfway down the line on his delivery to the plate.

“The first time he was on there, I lifted my leg and saw he was getting a big jump,” Snowman said.  “I thought I might as well try to pick him off the second (pitch).  I lifted my leg and he jumped again, so I just threw over and got him in a pickle.”

The Cougars executed the 1-5-2-1-5 rundown perfectly.

The defense made just one error and continued to make key plays throughout the game. In the second, Frost cut down a baserunner trying to steal second. Hunter Ross made a leaping grab to rob Kyle McVey of a single in the sixth.

“They were putting it in play but my defense was behind me the whole way,” Snowman said.  “They did a phenomenal job.”

Perhaps the biggest play came in the third. With the Cougars leading 2-1, McVey drove a bases-loaded single to right to send home the tying run.

But rightfielder Robbie Babb got the ball back into first baseman T.J. Frost quickly. Frost’s relay throw home went a few feet up the third base line, but his younger brother was able to catch it, spin and attempt a tag on Dumas, who was trying to score from second. Frost missed, but Dumas ran out of the baseline to avoid him and was ruled out, ending the inning with the score tied.

“I remembered all the time that my brother, T.J., was helping me out at first base  on the scoops (on throws in the dirt), so I said, ‘Gotta protect the family and get it,'” Frost said.

Snowman was lights out after that, allowing just two singles over the next four innings. He stranded another runner at third with one out in the fifth, thanks to his catcher’s blocking skills.

While Frost was throwing his weight around behind the plate on a trick ankle, Snowman was picking up his second win in the playoffs on a bad left knee. He tore his ACL during basketball season and nearly had his baseball season end before it started. But he postponed surgery, strapped a brace on the knee and joined Kaine  Hutchins to give the Cougars a title-winning 1-2 punch on the mound.

“I told him he was on a 200-pitch count today,”  Palmer said. “But to think in mid-April he was going to not be playing baseball. He was going in for ACL surgery. We’re not standing here with that gold glove (state championship trophy) without Chad Snowman on our roster.”

“With the brace, it really doesn’t feel like I had an injury,” Snowman said. “As of April 17, I wasn’t playing. I’m glad I played.”